Issue 8 2020

Acquisition International - Issue 8 2020 5 News : from around the world Supporting Future Generations Genius Group recently announced it has completed the acquisition of Entrepreneur Resorts Ltd, comprising luxury resorts and lodges, beach clubs and city co-working hubs for $32.6 million. The acquisition results in a combined entrepreneur education group with over 1.4 million students in 200 countries, and a faculty of 2,000 mentors guiding students to launch and grow their own businesses. Genius Group, a Singapore based public company, also owns the GeniusU edtech platform, Genius Institute and the Genius School companies. It has been experiencing 25% month-on-month growth during the COVID-19 crisis, as many affected by the crisis have turned to online education to start businesses and reskill themselves. Parents have also been turning to Genius School to supplement their children’s education with online entrepreneur camps. Entrepreneur Resorts Ltd, a publicly listed company on the Seychelles Merj Exchange, exchanged investors shares for shares in Genius Group, with the group now valued at US$96 million. The acquisition enhances Genius Group’s standing as the world’s number one Entrepreneur Education Group, with the largest student population being educated in entrepreneurship, from 5 to 85 years old. Entrepreneur Resorts Ltd is a market leading group of entrepreneur focused luxury resorts and lodges, beach clubs and city co-working hubs, offering business leaders professional educational retreats in exotic destinations around the world, including Singapore, Bali, South Africa and the Czech Republic. Its location includes a safari retreat and ski lodge for 2-4-week experiential learning programs. Genius Group is building a full entrepreneur curriculum by training faculty, acquiring campuses and developing an AI-driven edtech platform to deliver personalised entrepreneur education globally through live events, camps, business accelerators, schools, training and mentoring. Entrepreneur Resorts will now provide the campuses to deliver the curriculum, while online learning will continue to be offered through the edtech platform GeniusU. Genius Group and Entrepreneur Resorts began collaborating in March 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time Genius Group helped to cut operating costs for Entrepreneur Resorts by over 50% without any redundancies. The majority of locations are now open again and, post-merger, the international team is supporting new education programs at its various locations while ensuring the safety of both staff and visitors. Roger James Hamilton, CEO of Genius Group and Entrepreneur Resorts, says: “The coronavirus pandemic is a global crisis that has created major challenges in unemployment, our education system and the future of work. Our mission at Genius Group is to create a 21st century education system where students can learn how to create a job instead of getting a job. One that fits their talents, passions and purpose. That includes connecting together in safe environments in a post-crisis world. The acquisition of Entrepreneur Resorts is an important step towards that.” Sandra Morrell, COO of Entrepreneur Resorts Ltd adds: “A great example of the synergy between Genius Group and Entrepreneur Resorts is the Young Entrepreneur Academy taking place right now, where children and teenagers are on a summer bootcamp. They are launching their own businesses with half learning online while the other half learn together at our cafes and resorts. They are learning from experienced mentors who already run their own businesses, giving them the essential tools they need to succeed in the future.” Both companies have grown without any Venture Capital funding and instead have been internally funded by investors and business owners within their global community. As part of the merger process, Genius Group also raised an additional $2 million in June from investors for further acquisitions. With the acquisition, Sandra Morrell, COO, and Jeremy Harris, CFO, of Entrepreneur Resorts Limited, are both joining the board of Genius Group. Daniel Acutt is the Global Investments Manager for Genius Group. A newly announced technical partnership between Arkivum, recognised internationally for its cross-sector expertise in archiving and digital preservation, and Phlexglobal, a leading provider of clinical and regulatory software and services for the life sciences industry, will enable Phlexglobal’s customers to achieve and maintain compliance over the entire Trial Master File (TMF) lifecycle, covering both the live trial and the statutory upcoming 25- year archiving period – or longer – as required. The integrated solution offered by PhlexTMF and Arkivum Trust is available immediately for sponsors of clinical trials and clinical research organisations (CROs). Users can leverage PhlexTMF to bring order, stability, and control to trial master files while attaining the highest standards of completeness, timeliness and quality, then keep archived trial data safely alive in an immutable, trustworthy format that ensures prompt, painless access and reference. In addition to maximising GxP compliance, the integrated solution will facilitate insight and discovery, enabling sponsors to derive optimum long-term value – both scientific and economic – from their data and intellectual property. The partnership has grown from a relationship established in 2016 between Phlexglobal and Arkivum. Since then, expectations and capacities for the management of eTMF and e-archiving have grown considerably, and the partners are in a position to offer a state-of-the-art eTMF service that prioritises compliance and preservation while offering ease of use and efficiency. Arkivum’s experience in life sciences is complemented by credentials gained in other innovative, data-intensive sectors, including scientific research. The company has recently been awarded a project with CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research. Commenting on the partnership with Phlexglobal, Arkivum’s VP of Product, Sinéad McKeown said: “We know that inspection-readiness and minimisation of risk, along with visibility and interoperability, are of prime importance to sponsors and CROs as they steward clinical-trial data at every stage of its lifecycle. Through this partnership, Phlexglobal, backed by Arkivum, can offer its customers an end-to-end eTMF solution that is robust and user-friendly, and which plays a key role in regulatory compliance in both the immediate and longer term. “All of Arkivum’s digital archiving services operate on the FAIR principles – Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable – and incorporate an insurance-backed 100% data integrity guarantee. Moreover, Arkivum Trust, which adheres to ALCOA+ guidelines, is dedicated to meeting and anticipating the evolving archiving needs of the life sciences sector in multiple contexts: audits and inspections; scientific discovery; pharmacovigilance; new formulations and marketing approvals, and also corporate processes such as licensing, partnerships, and due diligence for mergers and acquisitions.” Jim Nichols, Vice President, Product Management at Phlexglobal, said: “Meeting clinical trial archiving requirements is a vital part of TMF Management as well as inspection-readiness, and this new chapter of technological partnership between Phlexglobal and Arkivum will provide the most customer- focused, secure, and comprehensive end-to-end solution in the industry. Once the clinical trial is complete, the customer can simply lock the trial master file in PhlexTMF and send it to archive – this commences the automatic transfer to Arkivum Trust. Once the transfer is complete, the customer can access the archived content directly via a link on the user interface.” Integrated Solution